The invention relates to a tool for obliquely severing flower stems, comprising a housing having a passage for inserting therein to a flower stem to be severed and a cutting blade extending between opposing side walls of the passage. The cutting edge of the cutting blade is directed in the inserting direction obliquely from one wall towards the opposite passage wall.
A known tool as described above is disclosed in EP No. 0021493 (vide the embodiment according to FIGS. 1-4). This known apparatus is expected to overcome the risk for incisions, on user's fingers, that may occur when the user severs flower stems by a pocket knife or a kitchen knife. This known tool is admittedly safe and is also easy to handle. The flower stem to be severed is merely introduced to the desired stem length into the housing and then is retracted from the housing. During the introduction of the stem the cutting blade remains inoperative but will tend to penetrate into and cut the stem when the latter is retracted.
However, the operation of this known tool, in which the cutting blade is in a fixed position relative to the walls of the insertion passage, is far from satisfactory. The more easily (i.e. with a greater a clearance a stem can be inserted, into the housing package the greater is the chance that the cutting blade will not immediately or insufficiently penetrate into the stem, whereby the severing action of the tool is restricted to a superficial scraping or peeling action of the blade on the flower stem. One may try to avoid this shortcoming by bending the flower stem while retracting the latter from the housing i.e. away from the passage wall opposite the cutting blade. Such a way of handling is, however, inconvenient to a user and is not sufficient to completely overcome the above mentioned shortcomings in the operation of the tool.